Ukraine will push ahead with efforts to join the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization despite Wednesday's collapse of Kiev's pro-western coalition, President Viktor Yushchenko said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.
Yushchenko suggested Russia had helped to fuel the political crisis. Asked whether he had evidence to back the claim, he said his one-time ally Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had held talks with "forces abroad". "This not a purely Ukrainian product," he said, referring to the coalition split.
In the interview Thursday, he said Kiev would stick to its pro-western foreign policy and added "there could be only minimal" delays to Ukraine's foreign policy goals. The FT notes that those include efforts to sign a closer partnership agreement with the E.U. next week.